Boca Raton man prepares for National Scrabble Championship

Crossword expert to compete

Boca Raton Pschents are ancient Egyptian crowns, but Trip Payne doesn't know that. He just knows the eight-letter word earned him an impressive 95 points in a game of Scrabble.

"I was pretty pleased," he said.

When it comes to words, Payne is world class.

Starting Saturday, Payne, 41, will compete in the National Scrabble Championship in Dallas. He's never won the event, but he is playing in the top-tier bracket, seeded No. 44, with a chance at the $10,000 first prize.

"He's certainly capable of winning a Scrabble championship," said John Williams Jr., executive director of the National Scrabble Association. "The odds are not there that Trip will win. The odds are there that he will finish well, but he certainly could win."

In an informal game Thursday, Payne sits with his eyes flicking from his professional-looking Scrabble board to his wooden tray, which holds his seven letters. His left hand rests contemplatively alongside his head, his chin resting between thumb and forefinger.

He rearranges his letters. Nothing. He places five tiles upside-down on the table.

"I'm exchanging my letters," he said with some resignation.

Minutes later he plays "seconal," worth 87 points. He knows what this one means: "It's a drug of some sort," he said.

But Scrabble isn't about knowing definitions, he said. "Scrabble is mainly a math game."

"When you're really good at Scrabble you don't even think of them as words. You think of them as letter combinations," he said.

He's memorized groups of letters most likely to result in seven-letter words. Twenty-three out of 26 letters in the alphabet form a seven-letter word when paired with "a," "e," "i," "n," "s" and "t," he said.

"I'm not a math guy" he said. Then — reminded that he had called Scrabble a math-based game — he responded matter-of-factly, "I know. That's why I'm not at the top."

After all, Scrabble is just his hobby. It doesn't pay the bills.

Crosswords do.

Payne has written about 40 books, and his puzzles have been featured in The New York Times. He's a three-time winner of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.

His favorite puzzle clue: "It can help you make a connection at the airport."

The answer: "Free WiFi."

Since graduating from Emory University, Payne has made his living playing and creating games. He once was a contestant on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" He was featured in the movie "Wordplay."

"I feel like I've accomplished a lot. I do what I love for a living," he said.

Even his partner, Brian Dominy, has a game-related hobby. He plays in pinball tournaments. They have some machines in their house.

But they've never played Scrabble together.

"It's not my game," Dominy said.

At least one other South Florida player will compete in the five-day Scrabble tournament. Ian Weinstein is ranked 18thin the Scrabble-playing world, according to Katie Schulz, a spokeswoman for the National Scrabble Association.